Gun Gale Online: Project Tower
by Caexah
Summary: Will the players trapped inside this death game reach the top and cure the sickened world of it's plague and at the same time free themselves from their slow deaths in the real world? Or will they die trying? Kirito will have to pick up his gun and blade to crave a way to the top, and he may just succeed with the help of his unit.


Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Arts Online.

AN/ Had this laying on my PC for some time now, and just now decided to get it on the net. Hope this will be welcomed with reviews and all that stuff. Enjoy.

AN/ I got the idea to write this story from KaiserBlak's **Gun Gale Online: Cerberus** and **Gun Gale Online: Erebus. **So credit to him.

\\/

Chapter 1

Gun Gale Online is a beautiful yet ugly world.

That is what Kirito thought when he first sat his feet in the world, more so then the other games he sometimes played. Not that he played often, but when you get the opportunity to try out the first VR-MMO-FPS ever made, you take it.

It was truly an amazing piece of technology that allowed such a thing. It was called a NerveGear which was a type of helmet that allowed the player to drive into a visual reality. A very expensive thing as it is still rather new. Luckily he had manged to win a place as a Beta tester for a new game so he got it for free doing some random contest he couldn't remember.

He was currently playing the game known as Gun Gale Online, or GGO for short. It was a visual reality created by a genius with the name Kayaba Akihiko. The game itself was taking place in the future, but it was not said specifiably when in the future, a dozen year or so after a catastrophe that wiped out the majority of the human race. Again it was not specifiably what happened, but that was what the games was about.

Somehow the monsters and mutated creatures appeared the years after the catastrophe and killed even more of the humans, that now only had one safe city {Starter Town} which are the town you start in, but that kind of said itself. The game is you have to find out of what happened to course the strange catastrophe, and somehow reverse it to save the world from the monsters and bring it back to what it was before.

To do so you have to seek out monsters, buildings, and just places, so find information. Of course there are a lot of monsters that want to prevent your doing so and will try to stop you. It was tricky as a lot of the information could be and was false, and it was a big world.

Kayaba Akihiko had wanted the game to be as realistic as possible but still a fantasy game, he had build the game in 100 floors. Each with a piece of the machine required to cure the world that had to repaired or changed using the clues found on that floor to proceed to the next floor. It is however protected by a elite monster, a boss.

Most of the Beta testers didn't get very far as they was much more interested in Player Killing, or PKing for short. Kirito wasn't that interested in that as it was more fun for him to seek out the clues hidden dangerous places, and to do the numberless quests that was anywhere for experience, money or weapons.

The world was set in some twisted darker tones, at last the 6 floors they had manged to unlock was. The world was dirty, seemly dead and lifeless, and unsettling lifelike. The creator really went all out making it seem lifelike, the NPC had very advanced AI that made almost just like real people with different personalities and it was hard not to see them as people.

The monsters also had a very wide range of AI range from very stupid to extremely smart. It was the smart ones you really had to look out for as they was often the most dangerous of them. It was very disconcerting how lifelike the monsters was, as going up against a {infested Wolf} with it's mouth full of sharp teeth howling like mad as it attacks was something you had to get used to.

The weapons was mainly Guns. Since this world was technically set in the future it was only logical that Guns would be the main weapons, but there was also a wide array of other things to have, such as energy shields, some energy blades, grenades with various effects and just a lot of things usually used together with guns.

Kirito used one handgun and a sword, a bit unusual but not overmuch so. A Sword or Knife was standard to have in case you no longer had any bullets. It was standard to have two handguns and the sword in the belt, and something that was rather popular with Agility players. Though Agility players themselves was a bit rare.

However Kirito was not one to keep to the standard, and liked to use the sword more than guns. Being the captain to the Kendo club could do that.

He had in his youth quit sword play as it was something out of the norm in his school, and he wanted to fit in. however after find out many of his friends was using him, and the rest knew but didn't do anything, he sough solace in what he quit. This brought him closer to his sister that was very passionate about Kendo, and wanted to be the best at it.

So he had created an Agility type character to help that purpose. There was other types but strength types was also a very used type due to the heavy duty guns they can equip and amount of gadgets they could carry around.

The Stat system was like this.

AGI (Agility) - determines movement speed of a character.

VIT (Vitality) - determines health of a character.

DEX (Dexterity) - determines accuracy of a player and ability to hit targets.

STR (Strength) - determines the carrying capacity and ability to wield certain guns.

DEF (Defense) - determines the defense of a player.

-copied from Sword art online wiki-

As said before Kirito has his points mainly in Agility, but he also has a bit in Strength in order to be able to use the more powerful handguns and carry lots of gadgets, and a little less in Defense.

Right now he was logging in on real game about a month after the Beta release. He really enjoyed the beta and was very interested and excited about what had been changed since.

His character was tall and muscular, though not overmuch so. Dark hair and eyes. A handsome manly face. Landing on his feet as he appeared in the game he looked around. The {Starting Town} still looked the same, but somehow even more depressing. It was a dark rundown town, with a lot of trash on the streets and generally just dirty and ugly. Stone faced guards anywhere with impressive massive guns just waiting for someone to start trouble.

As expected of the last town humans has left. Not a very bright or lively town by any means.

Deciding to do as he usually did in the Beta except when he enemy was too strong, he walked off the spawning place to go solo.

"Hey!" A voice called out, Kirito ignored it since there was a lot of other players there, and he really didn't have friends that played nor made any friends in the beta except some associates, and none sounded like the voice. "hallo there" the voice sound right behind him.

He turned to find another player with an red bandana and standard start equipment looking at him with excitement clear in his eyes. He had a rifle hanging over his shoulders which was the standard start weapon till you neither found or brought something new. Currently Kirito also had a rifle.

"Yes?"

"Were you a beta tester?" The man asked bluntly "The way you just walked off after you appeared shows you likely had been through this before... I think"

Kirito blinked "Yes, I was a beta tester" He admitted, wondering what the man wanted.

"Well I'm new at this and would ask you to show me the Basics" The man admitted "Oh! My name is Klein, nice to meet you"

"Kirito" He thought about it a bit and decided it couldn't hurt, and if he didn't do it someone that wasn't so nice could take the man to pvp allowed arenas for fun. "Sure I can do that"

"Sweet!" Klein cheered in a over dramatic way.

"Please follow" Kirito said as he turned and walked down a dark street.

"Creepy town" said Klein as he followed.

"It is" Agreed Kirito "Anyway, the first thing you should know is the NPC is highly advanced AI and very lifelike in behavior. This makes it sightly hard to get quests as you have to ask the right question in order to activate a quest they may have. The most used question I ask of Npc is 'is there something troubling you?'. You can usually find quests or people with quests with 'is there anyone in the area that might need a hired gun?'"

"Awesome" Klein said "Where are we going?"

"There was a person in the Beta down here that let you get a weapon for free if you agree to kill some of the monsters outside the city, the weapon is sightly better then we would could get for the starting money" Said Kirito glaceing annoyed at his own starting rifle. It felt clumsy in his hands and he hoped to get his hand on a handgun and energy blade soon.

Getting the quest to hunt down and kill 25 weak mutated deaf and blind toothless wolfs that roam the area outside the town. Kirito continued to explain the schematics of GGO.

"You do it" Said Kirito to Klein after having shot a wolf "Don't worry as these are only starting monsters and thus very weak, besides they only retaliate if you attack them. They are here for new players to practice on safely really"

"Sure" Agreed Klein easily as he took his rifle to take a shot "I'm going to master this in no time"

He missed said shot by a mile.

"Ahahahaha" Laughed Klein awkwardly and then began to try to explain his failure off "The barrel much be off"

"Wouldn't surprise me" Kirito agreed easily while smiling "The starting weapons are some of the worst things you ever get your hands on. I think there is something randomly wrong with all of them really, heard there one that jammed and one just had a slower fire rate"

"Are you mocking me?" Asked Klein suspiciously.

Kirito couldn't look the man in the eye, and decided to shift the subject "Try again, I'm am sure you will get a hang of it, remember the position to activate {system assist} program to help you"

Bang!.

"It hit!" Cheered Klein, then the wounded weak mutated deaf and blind toothless wolf tried to attack, it was still extremely slow so he easily avoided being hit "Whoa!"

"Keep shooting it!" Ordered Kirito as he just looked on. Klein hurriedly did so.

"Why did it die in one hit from you but two for me?" asked Klein.

"Weak points" Explained Kirito "If the place you hit on the monster is considered a weak point you do more damage, it is usually the head, the same if you hit armored parts the damage is reduced"

"Makes sense" Nodded Klein with a very serious face.

Fast killing the remaining wolfs to get their quest done they headed back.

"That was somewhat easy" said Klein.

"As I said it was the starting monsters, weakest of the weakest" Said Kirito "It is however not monsters you should be most afraid of"

"Well your the Beta, so what should I so be afraid of?" Asked Klein.

"Pkers" Answered Kirito with a grimace before explaining"The majority of the Beta testers spent the majority of their time killing each other. So they likely lay in wait to kill the newbies when they leave the safe areas, while killing each other that the same time. Luckily for the noobs the admin put off the ability to PK the first 24 hours, after that anyone is free game"

"Don't worry to much, I shall show the skills you have teach me and they will die like flies" The man said cheerfully.

_'What a carefree guy'_ Thought Kirito amusingly.

Having delivered the 25 paw of the weak deaf and blind toothless wolf as poof they did as the quest demanded. A faint ding sound and a sign on a sheen showed they reached level two.

"oh, it dinged at me!" exclaimed Klein as he tried to control the interface he called up, though not with much luck.

"yea, you leveled up and are now level two" said Kirito "i teach you how to control the interface after we have gotten our guns"

the man they did the quest for wasn't the local gunsmith, but they each got a dirty paper with when they showed the gunsmith they could get their weapon. The man wanted the paws was a shady hooded man with some connections to the underworld, and this quest showed some there that they could do their job and thus start hire them.

The basic of it, was the quest they just did was a quest that opened for other quests.

Many of the quests was like that. If you completed them you would get a 'reputation'. You could also get a shady reputation if the quests, or Jobs in this game, was of the shady nature or you double crossed you clients. But such quests where doing such a thing could benefit you would first appear on the fifth floor.

Depending on you reputation different people would hire you.

Right now anything was shady, and you wouldn't get a Job if you didn't want to work for a shady man.

"By the way Klein, you will only get the level up massage outside of battle, just so you know" said Kirito "At last it was so in the end of the beta, you could in the start though"

"Why?"

"Because it apparently distracted to many players"

"Oh"

"Yea" Kirito agreed.

They showed the dirty paper to the very huge and muscular gunsmith that sneered at them, Kirito was unaffected, Klein though to a step back. The Gunsmith pointed at a door "You can chose one of those in there, only one"

"Scary" Muttered Klein.

Kirito grinned at him as they walked through the door to a very dirty room, with a collection of weapons.

"Woa!" Said Klein as he walked over to look at the weapons.

Kirito already knew what he wanted and walked over to pick up a handgun. It was not a good handgun by any means, but at last it was one. He already knew knew another easy quest to get a weak energy blade. Metal blades having long since gone out of use.

An option come up on his interface as soon he picked the handgun.

[do you want to chose this as reward for the weak deaf and blind toothless wolf hunt job?]

He chose the option [yes] and went over to teach Klein how to use the interface. Klein chose a better rifle.

"Thanks for the help" Thanked Klein with honest gratitude "I have to log off soon, have a pizza delivered at 5. Pay you back for the help some time later"

"Sure it was no problem. Have to log out soon myself" Said Kirito having enjoyed himself teaching Klein.

"Huh? That's weird. The log out bottom isn't there" Said Klein as he looked confused at the interface hovering in front of him.

"Oh? It should be there" Frowned Kirito before opening his own interface to see if his own was there "It's gone?"

Kirito got a bad feeling about it "S bug maybe?"

"I gave contacted a GM (game master) but no one is answering" Said Klein, before comically started crying "I hope this is resolved before my pizza gets cold" He whined.

"Isn't that soon to late? It's 4:56 now" Asked Kirito.

"Ahhh!" Yelled Klein "A cold pizza is no better to eat then old socks"

Suddenly Klein stood in a strange pose and yelled "Log out!"

Silence~

Nothing happened.

Then Klein started to strike a lot of poses with more words such as "Game quit and Link cancel"

Kirito frowned deeper. There was no voice commands in the game. He had read the manual for an overview of what was possible in the game. As far as he knew the only way to log out was by using the log out bottom in the game menu.

A bottom that was missing right now.

It was strange if this was a game wide bug that the GM didn't just throw all the players out of the game while they fixed the bug, or disconnected them from their side.

He threw a glance at Klein that was apparently trying to move his real body to pull off the helmet that was keeping him in the game. Something that was also impossible. The helmet interrupted any signals from the brain to the body.

"Do you live with someone?" Asked Kirito "If you do they would be able to pull the NerveGear off you when you are absent from dinner"

"I live alone" Whined Klein still trying to pulled an invisible helmet off his head, looking very stupid as he did so.

As soon as the clock hit 5 o'clock they disappeared in a flash of light and appeared where they first appeared when they logged into the game. There was many people there and more appeared in flashes of light.

"Hey, maybe they are going to log us out now" Cheered Klein optimistic by his side.

"Maybe" Replied Krito as he tried to force down the growing bad feeling in his gut. He couldn't explain why he had the bad feeling, but it was still overwhelming and was saying in no uncertain fashion that something very bad was going to happen soon.

He hoped dearly it was wrong.

It wasn't.

A a white robed figure hovered above the mass of people, a hood made it so no one could see it's face.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko and I will welcome you players to my world" The voice echoed over the wide space, reaching every corner of it easily.

After that followed a speech about how he trapped in here for his own amusement, how if they died in the game the NerveGear helmet would unleaded a shock into the brain that would kill the person, how if it was removed from the outside it would still be killed by the shock before it got removed, how many players already died, how they had to save this world to be able to go back to the reality.

It was horrifying to hear how the man, thing, just forced 10.000 players into a game where death meant the final end of their life, and how proud he sounded.

Kirito's hand went to his gun, but it seemed like he wasn't the only one with that idea as some people fired they own weapons at the hovering robed figure. Kirito's hand went from the still not drawn gun to clutch into a fist down his side, he could clearly see all the shots going through the figure without harming it.

He was feeling a number emotions at the moment, helplessness, fear, rage, despair, frustration, sadness, hopelessness and more.

"Tish!" He hissed.

"Oh" The amused voice echoed effortlessly over the demands, threats, pleads, bibles turned towards the hovering person "I have left a little gift in you inventory."

Then Kayaba floated higher "Good luck to you all" And disappeared in the flash of bright light that blinded anyone that looked at it.

Screams of rage and despair rose from the gathered people, some was still shooting bullets where Kayaba was in a vain hope they hit the man. It was a strange distant horrifying music in Kirito's ears as he himself fought inside with his own despair, hopelessness, fear and rage.

Kirito decided to see what type of item the insane wannabe god left them before he did anything else, though that was more to do something than anything else. It helped a lot when he was feeling conflicted or angry before, to do something, anything.

Opening his inventory to see the item and found looking mirror. In the description that was with any item, and it's history if it had that, it was simply stated (It's surface will show you your true face to this world).

Getting another foreboding feeling he made the item appear, it was a small round mirror that he could easily fit into his hand.

Sure enough his real face was there in the mirror. He looked at his hand holding the mirror already resigned to what he knew he would find. A hand that before looked solid and, well, manly, was now seemed very fragile and delicate.

Said fragile and delicate looking hand simply crushed the mirror in a fit of rage.

Some of the shards pierced the hand, but instead of blood a only slight drop in HP happened. He starred on it, the thing that now showed how much life he had, one that which if it ever reached zero health point he would really die.

While you couldn't damage another player's HP inside the safe areas where no pvp was allowed you could still damage yourself, even to the point of death.

Seeing that he went into despair again, thinking about his family, his sister more than his mother because his she was absent more often than not due to work, thinking about this sudden overwhelming feeling of Mortality.

Never in his life has death felt so real and near as it did right now.

A settling young cry brought Kirito back to reality, his eyes began to refocus on reality to find a girl no other then 13 crying openly not far from him. Suddenly his sister's face overlapped with the girl looking around for Klein but not seeing him which wasn't so strange since his face and body must have changed like all the others, he frowned but decided he had teach the man enough to survive.

He walked over to the girl and keeled before her, suppressed all his negative emotions with a lot of effort, and did like he did to his sister when she was upset about something. He hugged her and whispered gently into her ear "just let it go, I'm here"

And she did, she cried hysterically into Kirito shoulder as he held her tightly. The girl was only about a year younger then him, but at their age a year's difference was a world's difference. Kirito was fourteen.

Looking down at the brown hair white hot rage began to build up inside him. It was bad enough Kayaba trapped the players inside a death game, the fact there was children inside it made it so much worse and made him hate Kayaba so much more than he did seconds before.

After a while the girl's tears stilled, and she stopped crying.

"Can you stand up?" Asked Kirito gently his voice soft.

The girl didn't answer vocally, but just nodded. She began to rise slowly and unsteady and Kirito rose with her, supporting her when the girl needed it. Neither of them knew how much time the girl spent crying, but many of the people had already left. To where Kirito didn't know.

Softly pushing the girl to follow they went off to find other vastly underage children. The game had a mark with +17 on it, sadly not many cared for it, Kirito included. They found a few, mostly boys. Eventuality they meet a woman with the name Sasha who was doing the same thing as him.

They eventually went to a dirty abandoned church what had a place where you could get an infinite amount of bread and water. It was a bit run down but it was a place to live. He helped take care of the children together with Sasha till they fell asleep.

Then he walked towards the door.

"Are you are leaving?" Asked Sasha with a frown "You are but a child yourself, you do not have to fight"

Kirito sighed deeply "I have to, no, I want to" He admitted. Having taken care of the children helped him find a resolve they was now burning inside his chest. A burning resolve that wouldn't accept him not doing anything.

Sasha stepped in front of him to block the exist, she herself had a ironclad resolve in her eyes. A resolve that wouldn't let Kirito out to fight in a game that could cost him his very life. In her eyes he was too young.

"I can not let you go" She declared, and tried to convince Kirito not to by guilt tripping him "What will I say to the children if they lost their new big sister?"

sighing weary "I am a boy you know" He admitted. He would have told sooner, but at the time it wasn't a priority.

If it wasn't for the serious situation he would have laughed at the expression of Sasha, even if he was a bit annoyed again to have been mistaken for a girl. Not that he could blame Sasha.

Due to some promise he made in his childhood to his sister he couldn't remember all that clearly anymore he had not cut his hair, and let it grow long. As he grew up he knew how laughable it was to still listen to the promise, but he had gotten used to it, plus his sister loved it. That and the fact many had tried to bully him and make fun of his hair so he made it a point to defy them and keeping his hair long. It was now reaching his lower back in a waterfall of black silk, it was cut in front but there was still long bangs over his face.

His build was very delicate and gave a fragile feel to him, despite him being vastly stronger than he looked. His arms looked like they wouldn't be able to lift any weapon heavier than a small gun without breaking. His skin sightly pale despite not making any attempt on staying out of the sun.

His face was also had an extremely exquisite feel to it, big eyes and full red lips. He was more beautiful than all the girls in his school, which granted didn't hold any noteworthy beauties except him who was in a lounge of his own.

-i make this short and to the point, he look like his avatar did in the pictures from Gun Gale Online-

"But that isn't important" Said Kirito offhandedly, before becoming weary again "i was a Beta tester, I will not be able to sit still, and the fact is, you can't stop me"I

Kirito and Sasha eyes cashed in a epic mental battle of wills. Sasha absolutely refused to let a child go, but knew she didn't have a say in the end and he would leave with, or without, her blessings. Kirito absolutely refused to do nothing when he had the ability, the knowledge and the skills.

Sasha backed down slowly and reluctantly, after realization the futility of her actions. "you was a Beta tester right? you know how to survive?" she asked in a pleading voice.

Kirito closed his eyes, before opened them again with willpower almost shining through them, his confident voice held a charismatic power that helped Sasha relax a bit as he said a single word "Yes"

"Then I will only demand a single promise from you before I let you go" Sasha demanded with iron in her voice. It was clear that if Kirito didn't give whatever promise she wanted she would anything in her power to keep him there.

"What is it?" Asked Kirito

"Promise you won't die" Her eyes soften with warm feeling, Kirito's eyes did likewise.

Kirito couldn't resist the hug she gave, he couldn't bring himself to it. He whispered "I promise"

"Then know you will always will be welcome here, and remember to visit often" Sasha whispered softly into his ear as she let him go.

"Of course" He softly whispered back before leaving the church, he had a Job to find and a sword to get.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In Gun Gales Online there was a unlimited about of skills, at last so it was rumored. Cooking being one, gunsmithing was another, tailor, woodcraft, and more. But it was not all non-combat related, there was skill for each weapon type, each action.

More skills appeared as you did certain actions, leveled up certain skills, did certain Jobs, killed certain enemies, and used certain weapon types.

Kirito didn't have much to his name right now since it was only the start of the game, and while it may be safer for him to pick up a heavier weapon type than his gun, he didn't. He knew from the Beta that he died more often when he did so, he tried before he found an energy sword.

This fighting style made him a close range agility fighter with very little firepower at range. However that wasn't much a problem with the natural ability he had with the handgun. It still wasn't wise to just charge in which the small amount of HP he had.

So he had to seek alternative methods with leveling up the skill sneak to be able to close the range, and a wide range of gadgets such as grenades and flash-bangs. That was what he did in the Beta, and that was what he wanted to do now.

But he didn't have the money to buy the gadgets, and he haven't gotten his sword yet, which was a type of gadget, and his skill level in sneak was nonexistent, though he was rather good at it naturally.

The sneak skill was a system assisted skill that if you went into a certain pose would activate and making you harder for mobs and players alike to notice you. Staying undiscovered was not only depend on the level of the skill, but also the amount of light you was in and line of sight of enemies, and noise produced by armor and steps.

The higher the player's level of sneak the less the other ways of staying hidden mattered, like still being hidden when producing a higher amount of noise, and be able to stay hidden with less cover and more light.

Natural sneak was to stay out of sight and move soundless without system assist.

Being a natural sneak helped the system sneak greatly, due the less notice produced naturally.

At the low level it was in now it really would matter if he entered the sneak state or not.

In many situations it was a nice way to escape a fight he didn't want to fight, and nice getaway if used together with a smoke bomb.

It was a skill he used much in the Beta, and he felt in a strange way naked without his energy blade. So he was very nervous when he drove near a cave in which he had to retrieve something for his client.

It was a type of usb with data his client wanted to have. Kirito didn't care much.

He was partnered up with another Beta player that he had worked together with previously. A Female player with the name Sinon. Their relationship both in the Beta and now was purely business in nature and you couldn't call them friends even if there was a form for trust between them.

They contacted each other when they needed a form for back up in their Jobs, just like now when she had contacted him for a job, in which she had to help with his job after. A fair deal. They had already finished her job so now it was his.

The Job he underwent with Sinon was a job that gave her an low level sniper and some money at the side. Easy, and she didn't need his help at all, just like he didn't need hers with this. They was only there as insurance in case something had changed that they needed more firepower to deal with.

She had a gun in her belt much like Kirito, but was the very opposite in fighting style. She was a long ranged sniper with supreme skill. However it wasn't much use now that the cave wasn't suited to such a fighting style so she kept to her gun for the moment.

They proceeded slowly and with care for changes since the Beta, they already noticed a few of such changes. The game as an whole was much more lifelike than the Beta. Shooting yet another bear easily he got what he come for. Finishing the job, him and Sinon separated as easily as they meet up, hardly without a sound at all.

They worked well together even without knowing each other. Sinon much like him was a loner in nature, and as such didn't talk much. They shared a bond those with exceptional skill shared on the battlefield, as they both acknowledged their opposite. Kirito being extremely skilled in short range, and she was unnaturally skilled with a sniper.

There was also a bond of trust they had. It was not that they haven't killed each other in the Beta, as they had, multiply times at that. Sinon was not like him that preferred not to PvP, as she focused mainly on that. No, it was a bond of professionalism. Sinon and him followed an unspoken set of rules.

They both had a reputation as being mercenaries, or Gun for hire in the Beta. However Sinon was mainly hired as support for PvP groups wanting ranged support. Kirito was mainly hired as investigator and explore by information brokers or to revive a rare item for someone, usually a gunsmith.

Sometimes they was on the opposite side of each others weapons, sometimes on the same.

Basely they was trusting the others mercenary's reputation as trust worthy. If they didn't have a trust worthy reputation they wouldn't be hired. As their own reputation grows they can turn down offers from less trust worthy sources, a.k.a. People and groups likely to kill you after the job is done, and as an added bonus rise your hiring fee.

It was because of their professionalism that they didn't say anything about each other new appearance. Sinon had been a tall woman full of muscles, a real army woman with cold gray eyes. Now the she was a small girl around fourteen like him, she also looked fragile like Kirito. But her eyes was the same, gray and colder than ice. She had her trademark muffle on over her clothes, while Kirito had only the standard start armor.

Kirito that was a tall muscular man in the Beta had become a extremely feminine boy. Sinon knew he was a boy since they couldn't chose another gender than one's true one, and since he was a man before it was logical to to presume a boy.

Kirito feeling much better having the energy blade in his belt, went to train his skills on monsters he could take easily. Deciding to level up sneak and other skills he would need and get enough money to buy some gadgets that could help him survive and escape if needed be. One such thing was smoke bomb which was immensely useful, both for escaping, and for getting closer to the enemy under cover of the smoke.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sinon was looking at the back of the one she teamed up with in thought.

Normally she wasn't one to play games, FPS games even less so. She was deadly afraid of guns in the real world, and had brought Gun Gale Online to help her over the crippling fear they brought forth in her. She played to become stronger than the weak self she was in reality.

It helped a lot, at last as long she was in the game, but she still had the crippling fear in reality. She would collapse and be overwhelmed by fear each time someone pointed a gun shaped hand at her and said "bang"

The fear was a mark of her sin.

Three years before now she was in a mail office when it was robbed by a very violent and armed man. Things happened and then she stood with a gun and had a choice, to shot, or not to shot.

She shot.

The violent robber died of her shot right before her eyes, she could clearly see the life leave the shocked man's eyes as he fell to the ground.

Since then she went into hysterics each time she saw a toy gun or gun shaped hand pointed towards her, a fact that her classmates and school found funny enough to bully her with. Not a day went without someone trying, and succeeding, to bully her with her fear.

She disliked it, she hated it.

So when the chance come to get over it, she took it.

She had problems at first with PvP and player killing, but soon she learned to harden her heart to ice and she become an emotionless machine. Her skills with the longer ranged weapons made her a popular supporter and feared assassin.

But despite being popular she couldn't really find a group that made her want to stay in it for more than a few days. At first she couldn't find out what annoyed her about them, but later found the answer within herself. They didn't take it seriously.

For her Gun Gale Online wasn't just a game. It was a way for her to become strong, and to test herself.

However now that the Game was just a game anymore she couldn't help but regret her earlier thoughts about the players not taking the game seriously. She sometimes wondered if she had become cursed after she took a life, and suffering was her punishment. While she took the game more seriously than others she didn't want this, death game, to happen.

It was not her fault a mad man trapped 10000 players here, logically she knew that, but inside she couldn't help but feel it was so. That God had cursed her, and the others was trapped because of her sin, because of her bloodstained filthy hands.

She wanted to clear the game alone just for that, but her calm battle mode fast made her realize the impossibility of doing that by herself. It was called a MMO, massive multi-player online, for a reason. You simply can't clear the game yourself.

As soon she had realized that she went over her contacts, which wasn't that long, for someone that could help gather her gear. She would do as she did best, support and snipe from afar. She wasn't a close combat fighter, though she was okay in mid range.

As she went over her contracts she found a name of the one that had made the biggest impression on her yet.

Kirito, the Gun sword.

Famous for actively bringing a sword into a gun fight, and winning.

At first she thought he was like the others that treated it like a game, a game that it was, but when she meet him she realized that like her he treated each fight like a life and death battle. He wasn't fooling around with that blade, he was cutting bullets and people alike apart with it.

Though while he treated each fight as a life and death battle, and having fun that way, outside it he had an easy going pleasant personality.

It was a wast contrast, in battle mode he was a monster with inhuman reflexes and instincts. While outside he took a more relaxed way to take things.

It was like her. She had a mode in the battlefield, which she often activated in her head with the words 'my heart is like ice, my body like a machine'.

She first meet him when she was in a team laying in an ambush for another team, and he happened to come past very light armed with a handgun and a lot of gadgets in his belt. Her current group had decided to kill him before the original targets showed up, to pass the time. She didn't snipe him since her sniper rifle was too loud, so her group members attacked.

They was killed.

Her group jumped out of cover, their automatic and semi weapons loaded and ready to fire. Usually when people are surprised they have some seconds of hesitation as they try to comprehend they situation, some have a reflex that make them jump back from whatever surprised them or shot at it. Her group's target moved to the side in speed that clearly marked him as AGI build, and in a flash her gun fired multiply shots at the same time they fired.

One of them died by multiply head-shots before they even apprehended that this wasn't so easy as they thought, another died when they become surprised, and thus hesitated. It was clear this person was very skilled if he able to take advantage of that brief hesitation. Both of those that died was the ones that was using fully automatic weapons, the rest was using semi-automatic weapons.

Their target reloaded his gun while running, the reload didn't take more than a few seconds. He didn't stay still at all, or run for cover like normal players. No, he was already close to the two people that remained of their group if you excluded her.

She was trying to target him, but because of his fast and irregular movements didn't get a sure kill shot which would be problematic. If she shot and missed she would not only have given away her position, but the bullet prediction line would appear.

The prediction line was a faint red glowing line that would appear after first shot, that showed the path the bullet traveled through. After first shot it appeared each time she pulled the trigger, and showed where the bullet would travel through, so if you had a good reaction time you could avoid it. As long at that was there it would be easier to avoid her shots since she shot from such a far away range.

Making it somewhat hard to get a second shot in.

It was still somewhat early in the Beta, but later you could an upgrade to your sniper to make the prediction line disappear. She didn't have it right now.

She had hope she could have a shot when he would reload his gun, but unlike normal players that sought cover when reloading he did it on the run while avoiding bullets. He must have a extremely good reaction time to be able to dodge bullets from such a close range, with there being almost no delay between bullet and prediction line at such close range.

A blur was alt that could be seen as the target become even faster, the man had abandoned his dodging when his enemy began to reload at the same time, to charge into very close combat. Her two temporary allies sought cover behind a stone when they started to reload, their movements uncoordinated and clumsy because of panic. The first person that died was their leader so they had no one to give orders.

Neither of them had brought a handgun so they was stuck trying to reload.

She sat her hopes the man would stand still when killing those that was in the process of reloading, but no the man instead of running around the stone to shot the two players, he jumbled over it in a strangely graceful jump for such a muscular man while activating one of the gadgets he had. Then in a acrobatic spinning move both of the players died from a glowing light saber shining a purple shine.

They didn't know what killed them.

He landed on his feet, and retreated into into dense cover. Likely to put some distance from here.

The whole thing took less than 15 seconds.

She never got a clear shot the whole time.

That was the first meeting. The second meeting she assassinated him from about a km away. He didn't have a chance to see the bullet coming.

The 3th meeting she was assassinated by having a light sword shoved through her back. She never saw or heard anything to indicate anyone sneaking up on her before she could see the blade pointing out her chest.

They had some more hostile encounters, but he won most of them.

Then both she and him was hired to clean an arena out, and they worked well together like they had done it for years when they first was in the mission mode. Both of them didn't take their killing of each other personalty.

Generally as time went their encounters both on the same side was pleasant and they could appreciate the challenge when on opposite sites.

Not to mention this man with the avatar name Kirito was the most skilled person she meet in this game.

Sure there was a lot of other skilled players, but Kirito's sheer combat ability bordered on supernatural.

So she contacted him to help doing the start Jobs for some low level gear and some money, in return she would owe a favor. That was the deal she sent, Kirito sent a counteroffer in return for her start Jobs for a sniper's gear she would help getting some of his gear.

She easily accepted the fair deal.

In all honestly Kirito offer was a bit rare as unlike her he didn't prefer to stay in a group, and instead roam this world alone. He only ever really stay in a group for a big Job or boss.

He must not be taking any chances right now that it really mean death if you fail. A wise move all in all.

When they meet up to do the job she was very surprised so see the real face of her rival. Beautiful and fragile. Her eyes had long eyelashes that really brought them out, his lips vivid crimson. The hair finished the gorgeous female girl look of. If she didn't know the avatar creation was restricted to one's own sex he she would have mistaken him for one of the rare beautiful female players.

It was a far cry from the muscleman his avatar was before.

Not that she was one to talk as her avatar was a muscle-woman before. Now she was a girl smaller than the average girl. But she could freely admit the boy before her right now was more beautiful than she was.

"Sinon?" Asked a soft voice from the person she knew was Kirito, he had something special about him that made her recognize him even in another form. Kirito voice didn't give a hint of his true gender, it was soft and sightly melodic.

"Yes" She confirmed her identity to the feminine boy.

She felt his glance roam her new avatar, but he didn't say anything. Just like she didn't say anything about his new appearance.

She looked at his equipment to see he only had a handgun, and a old looking one at that. He must have done a Job to get it as a gun wasn't part of the start equipment, and even as old looking it was, it was still better than the start rifle.

He still didn't have his trademark sword.

Luckily he was not only extremely skilled with the sword, he was unnaturally skilled with a gun also so there wouldn't be any problems.

"Be aware of difference between now and Beta, spotted a few myself." He ordered, his eyes burning with a cold fire let her know he was deep into mission mode. "the differences is mostly a sightly raised intellect in mobs and minor changed movement patterns"

Sinon, who wasn't a leader type herself, let Kirito take control of the Job without protest. Kirito usually wasn't a leader himself and like her let the title go to the ego filled players they was sometimes forced to work with, but when it was them alone he was the leader by some unspoken agreement that happened somewhere along their Jobs.

He had talent for it, leadership that is.

"Understood" She said coldly, her own eyes was like ice.

Then they began a slow but steady walk towards the ruin they had to complete the Job she had in.

It seemed that their teamwork didn't crumble under the new pressure their mortality laid on them as it was as flawless as ever. Kirito was close range, but was currently playing support for Sinon as she shot them down from medium range, his job was to kill them that come too close to Sinon while she took care of those longer away.

Both of them skilled enough to hit the weak points in the monsters to bring out the maximum damage of each shot that left their weapons, and minimizing the amount of bullets used.

It was a effective method that allowed them to effortlessly do the job without losing a single health point.

They was very careful about how many bullets they used, as you couldn't access the inventory to equip more magazines of bullets while in combat so you had to have them on you. Meaning you you ran out of bullets while in combat you had no way of getting more by yourself before you left combat.

For most players that was a death sentence.

They used the same tactic for Kirito's Job where he got his trademark sword.

After the Job Kirito and her went each their own way, but she could help but stare a bit on the seemly fragile looking back of the player she regard as the strongest.

He had not went out of his mission mode after the Job was finished as he usually did, and she wondered if he was going to stay in that mission mode for the entire length of this death game.

She sighed a bit warily.

A part of her wanted to go with Kirito, both for protection and for a strange need for human contact. She didn't call out to Kirito however, she was used to deal with things alone.

They both needed better gear to do more jobs safely so they had agreed upon they would train their stats before meeting up again for more jobs in two days time.

What they already did to get some of their gear could be seen as very risky. GGO was a multi-player game and the Jobs, Guests, Missions, was mostly aimed for more than one person. The ones they just did was recommenced for 3+ players of their level.

There was no need to risk more so early in the game when it isn't necessary, so they went to build up their levels.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kirito had a long day of killing monsters, looting, buying bullets, and traveling to some of the more hidden areas to avoid the other players, over and over again.

All in all it was very rewarding, if a bit risky being to far away from the Starting Town in such low level. He was doing fine however, as he was good at remaining unseen when needed, and an energy blade was The most damaging weapon in the game.

So he was fast leveling up the skill sneak, and another skill he began to use more and more in the Beta, acrobatics.

When he first was in the game his form was in a way set, he was teach to handle a sword a certain way after all, but as time went he more freely used the sword in a non-regular way, such as reverse handed grips. Later he began to jump around in various acrobatic maneuvers to avoid bullets instead of staying on the ground.

He become really good at acrobatics.

Anyway Acrobatics as a skill was how high you could jump and how far you could fall without fall damage, similar to how agility set how fast you could run.

Anyway one of the items that dropped was a hooded cloak that he used to hide his face with, in received 10 invites into groups because of looks his looks alone. Their perverted eyes easily told him they thought he was a girl. The cloak helped stop people from bothering her. It didn't give any stats at all.

He went to the church to see how the kids had it.

Opening the door and walked in to see most of them sleeping on benches and on the floor in thin blankets, he frowned at that.

"Who are you" A voice demanded quietly to not to wake the children. It was Sasha that was starring suspiciously at his cloaked figure.

"It is me" Kirito answered as he took the heavy cloak off.

Sasha let out a relieved breath, you could never be too sure. "You are back Kirito, how did it go?" She asked a little worried.

"There was no serious problems, and anything went smoothly" He replied.

"...Onee-sama?" A sleepy voice asked. It was the one he saw that reminded him of his sister and the one he hugged right after Kayaba Akihiko's announcement.

She looked cold. She also looked young, despite being around 13 and him 14 he felt much older than her at the moment.

"Silica, right?"

"She has really taken a shine to you, and insisted to wait up till you come back" Commented Sasha with a smile. It was nice to see children being children.

Kirito dropped his warm cloak on Silica which she instinctively wrapped herself into "Sleep little one, I am here"

She was out like a light after a few seconds.

"It is rather cold isn't it?" he commented to Sasha, looking a the other cold children.

Sasha grimaced "Yes, I don't know where to get some proper blankets, nor do I think I got the funds for it even if I found a place"

Kirito thought the problem over "I think I know where to buy warm cloaks, they could use them" He said at last.

"Don't have the funds" Sasha repeated herself.

"I have" said Kirito a bit dryly at the way Sasha wrote him off "Take care of them while I go get them"

He counted the children "34?" He asked Sasha who looked torn refusing him founding them, and take it for the kids sake. Kirito sighed at it "Sasha, pride can be a beautiful and ugly thing, but there are times when you as adult should be able to see beyond your pride"

Sasha sighed wary at it, and looked resigned at Kirito "To have a child provide for children is humiliating" She said.

"I am not a child" He answered.

"You can't be more than 14"

"Yes, I am 14" Kirito admitted, he thought a lot similar thoughts the last many hours "But age do not matter here. I have picked up a gun to fight for my life, for these kids life. I know and understand the dangers, the responsibly, and possible consequence, of my decision. I am no longer a child, I am a solder."

Sasha looked at him overwhelmed by sadness "It shouldn't be this way, it shouldn't be necessary for minors to pick up arms"

"Can't do anything about it" Replied Kirito as he began walking towards the door again, he threw a small smile at Sasha "How many cloaks shall I buy? They are very cheap if what I remember is right."

He has chosen his path.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Targets neutralized" Reported Sinon into the microphone in front of her mouth as she relaxed her grip on the sniper rifle.

The captured players had not yet reached the second floor, even if people have begun to break out of their flunk and start leveling up. Because more players moving some of the better leveling arenas had become crowed with people, and with a lot of people gathered one place, arguments and small fights broke out.

Well most of the reason the players has begun to finally move was a new guide that could be brought for free by the local shop NPC. It had sections on combat, how to find and deal with traps, training grounds, skills, Mobs, known weak points on Mobs, missions, and more.

Many of the Beta testers helped making that book through a rather infamous information broker with the user name Argo, nick named Argo the Rat. However still somehow despite this book the Beta players in general ended up being hated by the new players. Apparently many think all of them used their past knowledge of the game to get the best items.

They are not entirely wrong in that regard, even if it was far from every Beta player that did so. Both Sinon and Kirito used their knowledge of the Beta game to get rare items that was only a set amount of, and they didn't see anything wrong with it.

They had just as much right to survive as the new players had, so why should they not use their knowledge to do so. But many of the new players didn't see it that way, demanding the Beta players to give their gear to them, like they had more right to it than the Beta player.

Many of the Beta players had gone into hiding from the far more number of New Players, some who are very vocal about their negative views of Beta Players.

It was a bit pitying to see so many people do the blaming game, the wast majority of them being over 20. blaming the Beta players for the not helping the newbies, blaming them for the many suicides, or prevent stupid people wandering into places far above their level. It seemed endless.

Luckily for Kirito and Sinon who already got what they wanted from such farming grounds, and had already done the low level missions that the players was first now trying out with wast numbers. They continued to do higher level quests for high rewards.

The head gear being one of those the rewards.

It was nice as the game didn't allow to open a channel that would allow players to talk over long distances in combat, and even outside it was only voice mail and not a chat. The head gear however allowed party members with it a steady communication.

However the biggest reward was to be able to avoid the bitching of those hater players that liked to make life harder for others to make theirs easier.

"Understood" Kirito answered back from where he was "I will then proceed"

Kirito then stealthy slipped into the building. Again they was going to retrieve something from the inside of something, but now that Sinon had her heavy sniper rifle she wasn't good enough at close ranged combat she could go with him inside the building. She would snipe those she could see through the windows.

However it was not like Kirito would need help in such an area setting, as it was where he could use his lighting fast reflexes and lethal sword skills to maximum.

He would not need more help.

He didn't need help to this mission period.

However even after they didn't really need each other on missions, they still accompanied each other. It was a habit, it was a comfort, it was a safeguard, but it wasn't a necessity.

Neither of them wanted to say anything about it, content and even happy for the company in the dark world where they risked their life every day.

"First floor clear" Kirito said after he had slayed the last enemy on that floor. "Any change?"

"None" Sinon answered as she observed the other buildings near the one Kirito was in for change in enemy activity. The area they was in was one of the highest level ones on the first floor, filled with Mobs with a weak AI but had a high respawn rate. They could gather in large groups if they thought something was there. There was also patrols in the buildings and overseers on top of them.

The Mobs looked like green ugly tolls. Each of them was carrying around various melee weapons, with a pipe being the most common weapon. They had been human once according to history, but got infected like the rest of the world and changed to what they are now.

Dumb intellectually, and powerful physically.

For most players in the Beta they was really hard to beat because of the large HP they had that allowed them to charge a player in a straight line and live. They was also really loud when fighting and easy attracted more of it's kind to it's location, often overwhelming the players with numbers alone.

They was located in a ruins that had once been a city, crawling all over the place.

Sinon was laying on a roof top which wasn't patrolled with a silenced sniper rifle, observing and once in a while killing a toll with a accurate shot to the head. She was supporting Kirito who had to go to the building in the center in order to retrieve a Key.

Key is what they call the puzzle pieces they needed to find in order to make the World machine work and proceed to next floor. They had tracked it down to this town, and was in the middle of process of retrieving it.

Kirito had gotten to the house the Key should be in safely. Normally they would have to kill anything on their way, but thanks of Kirito's skills in stealth and Sinon long ranged support it was unnecessary for them.

A good thing to as with the high respawn rate you could fight forever if you wasn't overwhelmed by the sheer numbers attacking you.

Kirito cut another down with his sword from behind while simultaneously firing bullets into the eye of another with his silenced gun. They both died before they could say anything, and with minimal noise. Their dead bodies shattered into pieces and disappeared in the wind.

A beautiful death for an ugly creature.

He went for cover again when another toll looked into the room, apparently heard something. It looked stupidly into the now seemly empty room, before turning to walk outside again. A sword emerged at the edge of it's vision briefly, before it cut off it's head in a flash. It's body shattered before it hit the ground.

Kirito listened for anymore tolls, they was not know for their silence and was easy to hear when it was near you. It breathed in a very noise way that was hard to miss. When he didn't hear anything he stealthy made his way out into the hallway with his gun drawn.

The Key should be behind this door. Kirito made his way to it silently.

Target location reached, preparing for entry" He whispered into his microphone.

Out of his belt he took a flash-bang and without hesitation opened the door a little and threw it inside the room. It was not that he knew that was anyone in there, but the Keys wasn't unguarded by any means. At the Keys was often where a mini-boss would be, or the largest density of enemies was.

He would have to make this fast.

Reaching out he opened the door once again and slipped in after he heard the flash-bang go off. There was 6 tolls inside, one of them was bigger than the others and had an Energy sword in a primitive belt. The rest of them had pipes and one even an steel ax used to cut wood with. He shoot one of the normal with multiply bullets, he needed four bullets hitting a weak point for the normal tolls to die from his gun. He cut off the head of the one closet to the door as he ran inside.

He made his way toward another that was still roaring in pain, no doubt attracting the attention of the tolls outside the building. It would take some time for them to get here since he locked the doors, but he still had to hurry. He could hear in his helmet that Sinion was slowing them down with her sniper rifle.

Shooting the large light saber wielding toll's sword arm to decimated it's mobility. Another detail of GGO is if you are shot some place it's functionality gets weaker and slower. It roared in pain as Kirito cut off another toll's head, before pulling off another fast reload without looking at his gun.

The two remaining tolls had gotten the sense of sight back and was starting attacking. Kirito easy avoided the clumsy but powerful attack by the remaining normal toll by sliding under the slash, he cut off one of it's legs while in mid-slide. Now behind the toll he cut it across it's back. It disappeared when it's body shattered, he rolled forward to avoid the slash from the light saber in the large toll's hand. It was pretty durable to still be able to move that hand so fast.

He shot it in the eye. It didn't care and moved into another wild uncoordinated slash. Kirito jumbled over it, and kept shooting. Eventually Kirito ran out of bullets in the magazine, and he did not have the time to reload right now.

He waved around another slash, slashed at the toll. It didn't avoid it, probably too stupid to do so. But it was still living, it's other brothers and sisters didn't even have a tenth of the HP this one had. It was also faster.

But it wasn't more intelligent, and it's strikes got more and more predicable as the fight went on. He easily avoided them.

Gracefully avoiding an overhanded slash he cut it's arm off. It howled in pain, but the howl was suddenly cut of by a slash of a blade.

"The Mob has breached the building" Kirito heard Sinon report. He looted the sword of the toll, it was better than the one he had. He also looted the Key of the big toll. He fast looked around in the room for other things of interest or value. He grappled a small golden statue of a ship that looked very valuable and some other small things. They was likely for missions that they may have overlooked that required them to obtain those items, so that Kirito and Sinon didn't have to go in here again later for them.

"Key recovered, possible Job items obtained. I will now proceed to escape" Kirito said he he moved out of the room in a run. He could hear the loud sounds of the tolls getting near, but paid them no mind. He hurried to a window and jumbled out of it, as he went by he put a crude metal claw with a rope attracted to the lower corner window.

While he was able to survive the fall his legs was likely to get broken, which would hurt a whole lot. Pain wasn't in the beta, but the Game master likely made it so injuries hurt now to make it even more realistic.

Realistic to an decree at least, as broken bones will be healed after ten minutes due to game mechanics. Medic packs also instantly heals instead of having to be manually applied.

The rope stopped his fall, and he began to repel down.

Land soundless he twisted the rope so the claw come free of the window, thereafter he ran off into the shadow of another building behind some cars to hide from the aggressive tolls. "Escape successful, making my way back" He reported as he put the Ropeclaw back in his belt.

It was a easy mission all things consisted, at last for him. He had worked hard on his sneak and natural stealth, and the tolls was pretty stupid. The damage you could do with a sword was insanely high, but the range insured it was rare to use in the beta, and now nobody wanted to put themselves in such risks it was required to get close enough to use it.

When he was almost out of the toll controlled city he could hear gun fire. It sounded like automatic type weapon was used. Kirito frowned, it didn't sound like there was more than two gunners at the most. Not the best in these grounds when you went high profile.

"Sinon, I hear gun fire. Can you see what is going on? It is near the north end of the city." Asked Kirito. For some reason he felt he should check it out. He was curious by nature after all. "I will be heading there myself as well, low profile"

Stealthy making his way toward the sounds, and once in a while killing a toll with his back turned. It was nice enough that the sword had the high base damage, but when you hit an unaware enemy you get bonus damage. A sneak attack double the damage, and for a sword user it was extremely nice thing to have.

"I got a visual" Reported Sinon. She was looking out over the town from her roof top while holding binoculars over her eyes.

She could see a lone figure fighting tolls in between the buildings. The small flashes of gun fire made it relatively easy to find the place.

She had long brown hair and was clad in a bulky coat, but it was very clear the girl was female. She was using a shotgun with major skill.

"Lone player. She is besides the general shop with the name 'Unko' straight east for check point 3" She reported dutifully "She is using a shotgun, but is slowly getting overwhelmed by enemy MOB numbers. She appear to have no skill in subtlety as she is standing in the middle of the street shooting despite having skills with that shotgun."

"I see if I can bail her out" Sounded Kirito over the radio, trying to formulate a plan.

"I will help from here" Answered Sinon as she began to adjust her scope and checking the wind.

While they didn't interact much with other players they did help when they could, though not those who was openly hostile against Beta players.

It was because of the hostility against the Bata players they so rarely showed themselves to players. The risk of being targeted of an PK looking for good gear without working for it was too high.

People do crazy things when pressed.

They had observed the situation among the new players without being discovered, and already was there clear signs of various types of insanity. Some dangerous to others some harmless.

Using the information they had they made person profiles of the dangerous ones and sold them to Information Brokers, who then marks the profiles as dangerous individuals to other people.

Anyway they did sometimes help groups when they was in a tight spot, or some who needed advise, but mostly kept to themselves.

Reaching a corner of a dark between two tall buildings where he could see for himself what was happening.

As Sinon said there was only one person with a shotgun battling against tolls. Luckily this player haven't reached too far inside this territory to attract an overwhelming amount of tolls. Observing for a minute now that he conformed that she wasn't overwhelming.

The first he noted was the cloak that cover almost the whole of the player's body. Making it impossible to see anything about the person under it.

The second was the person was good with a shotgun. The player when out of shots in the shotgun and the enemy turned the weapon around and used it as a club, which at times had an brief stun effect. The figure didn't panic when in a tight spot and was able to load his weapon while avoiding the tolls. He also kept an eye one her surrounding even while fighting.

The 3th thing he noted, was she soon would run out of bullets if she continued this way, and would have to leave combat to restock from inventory. However he was too far in to be able to leave combat without leaving the territory first.

The 4th though noted was the cloaked figure's unwillingness to retreat. He seen the player take some hits, and was now in the yellow. She would soon be out of bullets. So why was the shotgun user still stepping forward towards the center of this city and her certain death?

The answer quickly come to his mind, and the thought was so horrible he had to say it out loud.

"Suicide"

"Suicide?" Asked Sinon not knowing what he was talking about.

"This player is a suicide runner." Explained Kirito sorrowfully over the radio. "one who likely has lost hope and decided to go down fighting."

Both Kirito and Sinon was unsure how to feel about those who just threw their life away, those who did left them with a mixed feeling of disgust and pity.

"...Orders?" asked Sinon, her voice cold as ice. With that single word she left the decision to attempt to save this player at the risk their own life, or leave this person to die. She would follow his decision in this matter.

"...Preparing for high profile acquiring of likely unwilling living package, please provide support fire." He ordered with authority thick in his voice, a leader's voice.

He thought he heard a sigh on relief over the radio his decision to save this person, but that could easily be the wind or the static in the helmet itself. High level for this floor the helmet may be it was still barely working old junk.

Many of those trapped inside this game had become ruthless within mere two weeks. Those who lost their feeling of remorse took no chances for others, caring only for themselves. They was the main reason many of the new hate Beta players. One or two of the beta players couldn't help but hoard anything they knew for themselves, and then taunt others about it, even stuff they didn't need but others did.

People lost much of their ability to trust others outside small groups they form. They was unwilling to help anyone else, and would often take advantage of others if they could.

They was fools, unable or unwilling to think they needed more than themselves to win the game, but also unwilling to risk themselves.

It made Kirito sad to think about how ugly humans could be when pressed.

Normally they would have helped this person without hesitation, but they was humans too. Both Sinon and Kirito wanted something when they went to save one. It wasn't money they was after, not even reputation, but simply preventing another needed gun arm from dieing.

With this person who was committing a form for suicide they didn't know if it was worth saving if she decided to kill herself later anyway.

It was an gamble.

Kirito risk losing his life, and for what?

A person who would reconsider her attempted suicide? A person who would attempt to kill them in a fit of insanity? One who would head back to the start city and become a civilian? Or a person who would wait till they was out of sight to kill herself? Would she even wait until they was out of sight to attempt?

Was this gamble worth it the cost it would have if he lost it?

Kirito decided it was a gamble he would take because he was human and thus flawed, he could not bring himself to not save if he could save. He was a nice guy after all.

"Attempting rescue when target is out of bullets or enter red health, no need to risk being shot by the one we will save useless necessary" Whispered Kirito to Sinon as he stealthy got closer. "flash-bang, grab and retreat. Bringing the package at prepared meeting location afterward. Please provide supporting fire at my mark"

"Acknowledged" Responded the sniper.

Stealthy coming close to the shotgun user as he could he observed the cloaked figure fight. Surprisingly the figure was doing well despite his low quality gear.

She had good situation awareness, able to keep track of multiply enemies at the same time as she danced around them. Good at keeping track of his ammo, knowing when to reload, and reloading while moving.

Able to keep track of the enemies, moving around, and reloading showed the cloaked person was good at multitasking.

However it seemed that she had some problems regarding the type of weapon he was using. While the way she moved seemed graceful and smooth the way she handled the shotgun seemed clumsy. She had lot of problems handing the recoil each time she fire a shot, throwing off his movement a little bit.

Which resulted in a more than a few glancing hits by the trolls.

Suddenly when he figure was attempting to reload her shotgun while moving backwards away from the trolls, she stumped over a broken brick, the bullets she was reloading with slipped out of her fingers and the trolls charging.

You could clearly see the despair in her eyes as he futility reached out after the bullets that already was out of her reach as she fell. She hurry attempted to crawl towards her bullets, making Kitro think they was the last ones she had.

She never reached them as first troll towered above her with it's metal pipe ready to strike down upon her helpless form. She looked up upon the creature that likely would be her death in horror.

She let of two words in her desperation as she closed her eyes in reflex.

"Mark"

As the shotgun user had closed her eyes she didn't see the troll ready to kill her head's explode as a high caliber sniper shot went through the side of it's head.

She did feel herself be picked up though, and hear the orders of the person that picked her up.

"Don't move and keep you eyes closed!"

Sadly for her she didn't listen as she opened her eyes, just in time for the flash-bang to go off. She screamed in pain, and began to move in panic.

Kirito grunted in irritation as the girl he was rescuing did the opposite of what he told her to do. He put her on his shoulder and held her legs firmly as he began to run out of the city. Her shotgun was left behind as he had neither care, time or space to put it.

Her screams attracted all the mobs within miles, and he had to run fast if he wanted to get out of town. With one hand hand he held his gun, and fired on the trolls got in his way that Sinon didn't get with her sniper.

Sinon was continuing providing support fire, shooting as fast as her low rate sniper would allow.

When Kirito ran out of bullets for the gun he didn't even attempt to reload it with one hand, he had no type of easy access magazines and he didn't want to lose his gun by attempting to fancily reload it with one hand while running. So he put the gun back in it's holster and pulled out his energy sword, slashing anything that came close.

The trolls did their best, but Kirito was faster and more agile for them to even hope to catch, even when carrying a person.

Finally out of town he spoke to Sinon "I'm clear, get yourself out of there. Meeting at meeting point three for regrouping."

"Acknowledged" She answered as she with practiced hands packed her sniper unto her back, pulling out her own ropeclaw she went down the side of the building to avoid getting into a fight with those within.

It was also how she got up.

While she wasn't naturally stealthy like Kirito is, Sinon was easily able to escape town without being discovered. she had leveled up the stealth skill as much as she could.

The Stealth skill was one of the things anyone with sense would get as high as they could even if they didn't naturally use it.

The meeting point was one of the places where no mutation of the environment and no hostile enemies spawn. No PKing was allowed in those places.

Meeting point 3 was an old abandoned hut, in which you was always able to find food and water. the hut was in disrepair, but had table and chairs for four persons.

Throwing the girl none too gently on the floor as soon he went inside he went to sit down, the girl's suicide attempt left a bad taste in his mouth, his hands already moving to reload his gun. He disliked not having a loaded gun when able. He also refitted from his inventory, placing a new flash-bang in his belt.

As soon that was done, he relaxed. His personally softened.

Looked over at the person still sitting shocked on the floor where he thew her. He sighed. Then he began to pull out food from his inventory to sit on the table. It was nothing complex, just bread and butter. He even threw in nutella, that couldn't be brought but had to be stolen at a nutella factory overrun by nutella monsters.

The children in the church had loved both the nutella itself and the highly exaggerated heroic tale of how their 'big sis' obtained it.

"Are you hungry?" He asked as kindly as he could to the sitting girl.

A loud growl from the girl's stomach said that 'Yes, I'm hungry thank you very much' and the way she starred at the nutella in wonder was ridiculously comical.

Kirito laughed hard, much to the girl's embarrassment.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yuuki Asuna, with Asuna as in game name, starred in wonder at her laughing savior and the food on the table.

She haven't eaten in ages, or to be more precise a whole week, and it's been longer since she head anyone laugh. She haven't heard anyone laugh since Kayaba trapped them all within this death game of his period.

It was smoothing to her wary soul.

She like thousands of other players had had hope that it was all a bad dream or that they would be rescued from the game from the outside.

As the days went the hope died out, and many was left looking like they had died, Asuna was one such person. The hopelessness in the Starting Town was suffocating. Many did suicide, others stopped eating or drinking.

Most walked around with hallow faces.

Nobody laughed or even smiled. Nobody raised their voice useless it was just another person breaking down in screams of despair as they realized nobody could save them. Most was afreid of making eye contract with anyone.

The atmosphere of the town was that of desperation and hopelessness.

Eventually Asuna couldn't stand it anymore, and in a fit of intentionality she went out and began shooting, since then she never stopped shooting. Along the way she picked up a shotgun drop, and used that. She only went to town for ammo.

She didn't sleep, didn't eat and didn't drink anything on the shooting spree.

But even then her despair never truly left her mind, and she felt like she was already dead.

Then she came upon the troll infested city, where she did as she usually did, start shooting. She wasn't stupid, and was fast to realize she was fighting in vain, that she would die if she didn't run away.

But she didn't run away.

After all, how could you lose a life you didn't have. Maybe she would even wake up in her bed if she died, and all this was a dream...

So she kept shooting all the trolls she could see.

But even the ugly mutated human stood above her it all felt so real. She could it's mutated feet in all their horrifying detail, she could see each individual hair. As she looked upward she saw the muscles move under it's skin. She could smell the disgusting smell of the unwashed loincloth and body, it almost assaulted her nose and make her stomach want to vomit. She could see it's fat wobble revoltingly as it moved closer. It's eyes shone with glee as it lifted it arm with it's weapon, an old, too rusty to work chainsaw.

It would take joy in her death.

She would die.

It wasn't a dream, it was reality. She was going to DIE!

She was going to DIE! She was going to DIE! She was going to DIE! She was going to DIE! Going to Die! Going to Die! Going to Die! Going to Die Going to Die Going to Die Die Die Die Die DIE DIE DIEDIEDIEDIE!

I DON'T WANT TO DIE!

"Save me"

It was a small plea of desperation. One with no hope of being granted, but a miracle happened. She was saved.

Granted it was a fairy tale rescue where the hero come in defeat the evil monsters and then walk away with the damsel carried elegantly in bridal style.

This hero arrived with a flash-bang and ran away from the evil monsters with a damsel thrown on her shoulder like an sack of unimportant stuff.

She was rescued, but still...

She was grateful for being alive and grateful towards her savior, don't get her wrong.

It just that... She wasn't unimportant dammit!

And the way she had been bumped off to the ground as soon the reached this hut.

Huff.

Then she was offered food and her savor laughed.

It was a beautiful sound, her savor's laugh. Melodious and, she could hardly believe it, it sounded happy!

There was no fear, no despair, no hopeless filled eyes. Her savor was alive, smiling, laughing.

Surreal.

She rubbed her eyes.

Nope, still laughing at her.

At her...

Again irrationality got her and she yelled "Stop laughing" out of embarrassment.

Her savior just laughed louder.

Damn it!

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Children, a whole horde of them.

When Asuna demanded to know why her saviors, Kirito and Sinon, was fighting, yet still living. Able to laugh.

She never imagined to be shown to a church in the {Starter Town}, one that looked to be a bad state of disrepair, but then again being in bad state of disrepair seemed to be the general state of the town.

Then the children rushed to meet Kirito laughing and being happy.

Asuna was shocked and horrified, there was children catch up in this death game. They look so young.

Still the picture of Kirito playing and laughing together with the kids brought warmth to her heart.

"That is why we fight, and why we are still 'alive'" Said Sinon right next to her, she had known about the church and the children for awhile as Kirito invited her. She too had been shocked and horrified by the presence of children in the game. "We fight because we have to save them, and in return we are kept emotionally alive by them."

"Children! Let Kirito breathe please, I'm sure he will tell about his day later" Interrupted a young woman.

"Who is that?" Asked Asuna the girl besides her.

"That's Sasha, she is the caretaker of the children" Answered Sinon coolly, as was her way of speaking.

While Sinon was doing better emotionally since she moved into the church she still had the unreasonable feeling of guilt, she knew it's wasn't because her sin they was trapped in this game, but in the dark windy nights she couldn't help but wonder.

Because of this she kept her distance from the children and kept her cold attitude.

However just observing Kirito play with the children and the children run smiling kept her from going around the bend and go insane.

"You bring a guest Kirito?" Asked Sasha after the children calmed down somewhat with a curios look towards the still cloaked Asuna, making every child turn and stare at the stranger.

"Yea, she wanted to know why we fought and we decided to show her" Answered Kirito with a smile, before introduce dramatic "Her name is Asuna and we saved her from the big evil trolls"

The children loved it, and so he began his altered and exaggerated heroic tale of defeating the evil overlord troll and save the warrior princess from being eaten with the help of his pretty and loyal squire Sinon.

There was much laughing involved, indecent and humors outburst from Asuna at the exaggerated save, giggles from Sasha and Sinon when some of the child commentated that their big sis was way prettier than the princesses 'she' saved, embarrassment over the children comment from Kirito that couldn't bring himself to say he was male and another angry outburst from Asuna, that knew kirito was male and felt angry at a male was prettier than her.

Later in the evening Asuna was found sitting on the front steps to the church, starring up in the sky. Not that it was a pretty sight as an ugly dark gray shroud with some green sickly green mixed in covered the entirety of heaven, it was a sign of the mutation of the land and covered the stars and blocked out the sun at all times.

But right now her eyes wasn't seeing the sky, but rather replaying the day.

She had laughed enjoyed herself.

A wast contrast to the young woman that couldn't tell of she was dead or alive earlier that day.

"Col for your thoughts" Offered Kirito that appeared behind her out of nowhere, making her jeck in surprise at his sudden appearance. She knew that Kirirto didn't make a sound when he walk, or did anything that involved physical movement for the matter, but that knowledge didn't help her not get surprised.

It was like he was a ghost at times.

But then again he needed to be quiet if he really use that Energy Sword of his.

Col was the currency of the game world.

"Just thinking" Admitted Asuna to the boy that was a year younger than her "Why are you out?"

"The children is laid to rest and I have to meet Argo to sell the map and monster information about the troll infested area"

"Argo?"

"An information broker, she buy and sell information. She then sells it to other interested people" Answered Kirito.

"What did you mean with map and monster information?" Asked Asuna, while she was out shooting monsters she knew next to nothing about the game itself.

"Map information is something you gather while being in a place autocratically, if you manipulate your menu like this" He brought up his own and showed her how to get to the map. Asuna's map was surprisingly traveled, and while full of holes gave a nice overlook over the First Floor. She barely avoided several enemy areas with groups of enemies that would have killed her, before she ended up in Troll city that is.

"Now if you manipulate your map further you can make the map show what kind of enemies and what kid of items that they can drop in that arena. If you defeat a monster you get it's bio information, you know strengths, weakness and general history about how they come to be and why they inhabit that city. Of course like the map the information have to be found out"

"Found out?" Asked Asuna.

"Yea, if you shot a monster in a part where they don't take much damage because it's armored or something it will show op in the bio, but it won't be there before you shoot it there. The same with weakness, they won't appear in the bio before you found and exploited them." Explained Kirito to Asuna. "It is the same with their history, in most monster areas you will be able to find clues to why they become what they his in detail, instead of the vague guess that appear at first."

"Sounds complicated" Said Asuna.

"It really isn't, but I understand that it would seem like it if it was all dumped upon one's head" answered Kirito, before falling into silence for a few minutes, catch in his own thoughts. Finally he sighed, and decided to breach a subject that had been avoided for some time now.

"So, Asuna, what are young going to do now?" Asked Kirito of the still cloaked figure, even if she did pull down her hood to let her long orange-brownish chestnut hair and hazel eyes be visible.

Asuna sighed deeply.

"I... I don't know" She said as her despair returned, even if it wasn't as strong as before it was still eating away her newly gained warmth. "I don't want to die, but I can't take the hopeless aura"

"You could always help Sasha with the kids" Offered Kirito "She could use some help with them since there is so many"

Asuna thought back on the carefree smiles of the children, then thought about Kirito and Sinon interact in their combat gear. The girl come to an unsettling realization, she wanted to fight.

She didn't want to be left behind, she was strong too.

It may be her pride talking, but she wanted to be strong like Kirito and Sinon.

"I want to fight, for the children, for my freedom" Said Asuna as she clinched her fists, she looked up at Kirito with determined eyes that took his breath away "Will you teach me how to fight?"

"We will" Answered a new voice in the conversation as Sinon stepped out of the shadows. Asuna jumbled in shock, but Kirito merely glanced at her like he knew she had been there and had wondered when she would show herself. With Kirito instincts it may just have been that.

Still Sinon continued "GGO is a massive multi-player game for a reason. We need all the help we can get to clear the game, and you do have talent"

"Well" said Kirito awkwardly "Welcome to the team I guess"

Asuna did a mock salute to Kirito and then Sinon in that order "Thank you captain, First Lieutenant"


End file.
